The Labyrinth Revisited
by NobleQuill
Summary: Toby thirteen years later, rediscovers a small, red, leather-bound book and he accidentally speaks some very familiar words.  Will the Goblin King play the same game with Toby but for Sarah instead?  Will Toby succeed?  Some Jareth/Sarah later.
1. Chapter 1 Beep

Labyrinth belongs to (c) Jim Henson

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**Chapter 1: Beep**

Toby sat there, eyes wide, watching the black monitor with the white numbers, multi-colored lines tracking across the screen.

_Beep._

He cringed at the familiar metallic sound, watching his mother as she stood looking somewhat discouraged in the back corner, using false plastic nails to punch in numbers on her cell phone.

His father was pacing, squeezing his hands behind his back. The doctor would have good news, right? There wouldn't be any worries, right? Once the tests came back… once the tests came back everything would be okay.

_Beep._

Yet Toby didn't let his eyes fall off of his sister, who was laying in the bed, her arms placed over her chest in a way that wasn't natural in sleep. Her face was drawn, pale, and tubes of all sorts and sizes came out of her mouth, her arms, her side… Toby didn't want to think about it too much, but his eyes hurt from his refusal to blink.

"Who do you want me to call now?" Toby's mother asked his father, who paused in his steps to rub his nose.

_Beep._

"I should call Linda," he muttered, drawing his eyes up to his second wife, knowing that he would have to.

"Why? Just because she's her mother, doesn't mean she'll care about the situation. She walked out on you Robert, and she left her with you, she won't care."

Toby and Sarah's father sighed, and he looked up at Irene. "Give me the phone, wouldn't you like to know if Toby was in a car accident even if you hated me?"

_Beep._

Her lips pursed and she shoved the phone in his open palm before huffing and leaving the room, claiming a need to visit the lady's room.

"You'll be okay Toby?" his father asked, dark circles forming under his eyes as he spoke.

_Beep._

"Yeah," he muttered as his father left to make the call.

When both were gone, Toby made his way to the white bed, taking his sister's bare hand in his. He could feel scrapes on her palm from where she must have griped the steering wheel… or maybe when she fell on the ground amidst shards of glass she cut herself…

_Beep._

He didn't want to think about it. Making sure no one was listening, he whispered to her, "Sarah… don't die, please." Tears threatened to spill over, and he quickly wiped his eyes with his shirt sleeve.

"Please Sarah, what can I-" Toby was interrupted by the doctor who came in with his father behind him.

_Beep._

"It's not looking good… she's got important disks that have been fractured and broken in her neck, based on the MRI I don't think I can tell if she has brain damage yet."

"Will she wake up?" her father asked, his voice dead.

_Beep._

"Perhaps, but she won't be the same. If she has a brain injury, she'll either be paralyzed in places or lose a part of her senses. Once the brain wave test can be accomplished, we'll determine if she will be able to recognize you or even regain consciousness. I'm sorry sir, but it's the best we can do."

"It wasn't even her fault…" he whispered.

_Beep._

"The driver who hit her is dead, if that gives you any consolation. He had a 0.23% BAC." The doctor with his blank eyes looked at Toby. "Is that your sister?"

Toby nodded weakly.

"Don't drink and drive, kid," was his only response before he left them alone.

"I-I'm going to try Linda again," Sarah's father left the room after one glance at his daughter and closed the door with a light click.

_Beep._

Toby let some of his tears go and he wiped them up quickly with his sweatshirt sleeves. It was in the middle of winter, January 2nd when his sister was hit, due to some crazy drunk on New Years day in New York… an unfortunately typical story.

"But why Sarah?" Toby had to ask, his eyes filling with tears again. "She's not even out of her twenties."

_Beep._

With a sudden frustration, Toby stood up and let her hand fall gracefully back onto the sheet before slamming his fist into the wall. "It's not fair! It's just not fair!" His mother came in at the noise and gasped.

"Toby what the heck do you think you're doing!" She came over and checked his hand for any bruises and focused a frown at him. "That is no way to let go of your frustration. I know it's not fair, Sarah is a good girl and she didn't deserve this. Why don't you go back home with Dad and think things out, I'll stay here for a while."

_Beep._

"Okay," he whispered, taking a second glance at his pale and bloody sister before forcing himself out of the deadly white room.

On the way home, both men said nothing. Toby was at the ripe age of seventeen, and he knew anything he'd say to his father right now wouldn't help either of them. That was Irene's job.

His father backed into the house and told Toby he was going to try and call Linda again. It seemed she wasn't answering her cell phone, and he had hoped that it was just a signal problem in the hospital.

Toby walked upstairs and found himself walking into Sarah's childhood room.

Sarah had pretty much left her room exactly how she did at eighteen, with a completely stuffed bookcase, some childhood toys about, and her canopied bed with white sheets. Most of her toys that he remembered her having at fifteen were thrown in a box and packed one day for a reason he didn't exactly understand.

He found his way to her bed and sat on it, hearing the familiar mattress squeak with the addition of his weight. Every time he thought about Sarah, he just kept thinking, _it isn't fair._

When he looked up from his knees, her bookcase was right across from him, almost comically unorganized, with print-outs of plays and poems sticking out in random spots. Most of the books were somewhat organized, but the titles were very worn and most were hardbound. Her paperbacks were more or less destroyed, dog-eared pages and ripped covers showing rather than destruction the love that his sister had given each one of them.

Yet, a small, red, leather-bound book caught his eye, which was resting behind a few papers on the bottom shelf. The Labyrinth, curiously enough, had no author's name. He opened it and found his sister's name written on the top right corner of the first page, as was her mark on each of her books.

He smiled seeing it, and let his finger trace over the indents the blue pen had made. She was much younger when she had written this, her handwriting had improved since then.

He flipped through a few pages and decided to stop on the one dog-eared page in the book. "I wish the goblins would come and take you away. Right now." It was the underlined passage in red.

Toby cocked his head, he hadn't ever heard his sister repeat this line. It was very frequent of her to waltz around the house, reciting poetry and favorite passages from the favorites in her bursting collection of stories and plays.

But goblins taking someone away? There had to be some sort of literary reason for her to underline it, but he couldn't figure it out. Perhaps saying it aloud… "I wish the goblins would come and take you away. Right now."

Nothing of consequence happened, so Toby merely shrugged and was about to put the small book down again when he heard a sudden pecking at the window.

Toby looked up to see the eery white face of a barn owl, its black eyes piercing through the frosty glass. It pecked again, a little more fiercely and Toby went over to look at it. "An owl… what does it want?"

The owl pointedly pointed its beak towards the window's hatch, as if it knew how to get in, and then fiercely poked again.

Forever curious, Toby opened the window and the owl flew in with an almost etherial grace, landing perfectly atop Sarah's mattress. In an instant, the owl suddenly seemed to explode in glitter and a black suited man leaned on the edge of Toby's sister's bed.

Jareth the Goblin King opened his mismatched eyes and grinned. "Who would you like me to take away, Toby? You seemed to have left that little detail out." Smirking wickedly, he sat up and loomed over Toby, still grinning. "You seem a bit older since I've last seen you… huh? I had thought a couple of earth years had passed."

"W- wha- what do you mean?" Toby demanded in a stutter, taking a few steps backward in fear.

"Huh, it must be Sarah's mother who gave her all that spunk." He looked around her room a bit and smiled. "She didn't cower when she first saw me." He raised his eyebrow above his blue eye and smiled. "So tell me Toby, how old are you now?"

Toby gulped and suddenly found himself surprised. "You know my name?"

"I know the names of every child I ever lay hands on Toby."

"What the? Wh- who are you?" Sudden features of the man, such as a certain smell and his nightmarish tone were starting to become familiar the more he sat there.

"Ah, it seems some of us do forget. I am Jareth, the Goblin King," he announced with a dip of his gloved hand. "I'm sure your sister remembers me, she was fifteen when she wished you away." A glint of excitement flashed in his eyes. "Are you here to revenge her for doing such a thing to you Toby?" He walked towards him, smirking as he circled the boy's lanky frame.

"She wished you away, now you have the power to wish her away, should you wish…"

"I- I don't know."

"What has she done to upset you Toby? I can tell she's made you somewhat angry? Frustrated for some reason?" The Goblin King probed, taking a good look at Toby and realizing he had been apart from the Aboveworld for too long.

"What makes you think that?" Toby asked, stepping back and regaining some of his courage. "And my sister wouldn't have wished me away, why would she have done that?"

The Goblin King laughed, "ah, so she has left my name out of her stories, huh? Well Toby, imagine that you are young and her father has decided to go on a date with her step-mother who she absolutely despises," his tongue seemed to drip acid as he said the word. "So she's left here with a crying baby brother to take care of all night, and she just doesn't think its very _fair_." Toby gulped at the word. "So she carelessly wishes her brother away to _me._"

It seemed very possible to Toby, and it unsettled his stomach to hear such words dancing around the room. "So she was careless? I mean, if you claim she was fifteen… I'm almost seventeen now. Obviously she was just frustrated. And you gave me right back, right?" Toby felt absolutely ridiculous saying this out loud, was he believing what he was saying?

"Ha!" the Goblin King sniggered. "No, Toby, she had to set up a deal with me to get you back…" A crystal materialized before Toby's eyes in the man's gloved hand. "Would you like to make a similar deal?"

"Not on my life Goblin King," he asserted with a glare in his eyes.

"Ah, but you see, you spoke the words…" The Goblin King let his glove glide over the wood bed frame and then turned to glare mischievously at Toby. "Lets see where your sister is now, why don't we?"

"Please-" but already the Goblin King had grasped the youth's hand and in a blink, he was already back in the hospital "-don't." He whispered, opening his eyes to see his sister, pale and broken in the white bed before them.

_Beep._


	2. Chapter 2 Who Wins?

_**A/N:**_ I wish to thank: **notwritten**, **Twilight Earth**, **Kaytori**, **CrazyMel93**, **Shubaltz Crazist**, **Nightmother**, and **Firefly Conlon **for your kind reviews- they urged me to go forward with this story!

And thanks to all of you which have added this to your favorites or otherwise, there were many of you I can't list here, but I appreciate you all!

Hope this small bit was worth your wait! I'll try to be more frequent now...

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**Chapter 2: Who Wins?**

Toby sucked in a breath of the heavily sanitized air and took a daring glance at his comrade, and his temporary mode of transport.

The black suited Goblin King stood, eye brows knitted and took a few strides forward to approach the bed. "She's dead?" he asked in a lifeless tone, fingers drumming at his leg.

"N-no," Toby answered, coming forward as well. She looked even more pallid than she had only an hour ago, "b-but soon."

The Goblin King was motionless for a second, an uninterpretable expression on his face. Then, "you will play for different stakes then?"

Toby, shocked the Goblin King was still ranting about his stupid game, suddenly felt seething rage. "Is that all you _care_ about? _ Games_! She's _dying_ and you'd like me to _play_ for her _life_?"

"Is that unclear Toby Williams?" Jareth asked, a dark grin forming on his face.

"No! No Goblin King, I won't do it!" Toby, eye brows furrowed, stared back down at his sister once more, keeping his eyes on her.

"Ah Toby," the Goblin King clicked his tongue in disappointment and walked behind him, hands behind his back, "you are a smart kid, I never doubted that even when you were a toddler… but you aren't being perceptive. She's dying, and surprisingly I have the power…" he held out his hand in front of Toby and the crystal materialized before him, "to bring her back."

In the crystal, Toby saw his sister laughing at him, standing atop a grassy knoll in the park where they used to play as children. Chest puffed out, grasping one of her favorite black bound books proudly in one hand, Sarah announced, "I King Arthur, ruler of the Britains, has journeyed to find the Holy Grail!" She broke down in laughter again and the vision disappeared.

"Wouldn't you want that? Its not just for selfish reasons dear Toby, you would be saving a lot of hurt people… it would be loyal of you… what do you have to lose?"

"What's the catch?" Toby growled, keeping his suddenly watery eyes focused on his sister's closed ones.

"Should you fail to pass through my Labyrinth…" The Goblin King mused, his black leather glove gliding across his clean-shaven chin. "Sarah will remain in the Labyrinth with me."

Toby froze. "You'd keep her?" he asked. "Why?"

Jareth gave a wicked grin, "this isn't part of the deal Toby."

"No, I want to know." He looked at his superior with a hard glance. "What do you want her body for?"

"All you need to know, Toby, is that I'll heal her the second we get into the Labyrinth. You will then have thirteen hours to retrieve her at my castle and take her back to this world. Otherwise, she will become _one of us_… do we have a deal?"

Toby suddenly heard a very flat pitch echo throughout the room, signaling Sarah's loss of her heart beat. "D-deal!" Toby yelled without thought, and then suddenly his sister disappeared, the room fading out of existence as if it was never truly there.

"Thirteen hours, Toby Williams," his haunting voice echoed through the barren and ruddy landscape. "The clock is ticking."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Back at his castle, Jareth rolled the crystal around his fingers before letting it disappear. "Scatter!" he shooed the remaining goblins out of his throne-room and paused before returning to his bedroom up a small set of stairs, where the dark-haired Williams girl lay motionless. Jareth exaggerated his movements and ended up sitting at the foot of his bed, staring down at her with a wicked grin. "Funny, isn't it Sarah?," he hissed her name, "how you may have power over me in this world, but in the Aboveworld you are still so horribly vulnerable."

She remained unconscious, her bruises healed, her cuts reduced to thin, white scars. She stirred a bit in her sleep, squinting her eyes and taking in a shaky breath of air. "You're a fool, Sarah Williams, and you're about to lose everything."

Sarah, with a weak wince, opened her eyes.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Toby was at a loss, his eyes merely scanning the wide expanse of land which was the Labyrinth. Could he do this in thirteen hours? It seemed impossible, improbable.

But yet… Sarah had. At fifteen she had conquered this place. He had to find his own way across the Labyrinth, and if she did it for him, then he could do it for her.

"Yeah… for Sarah," he murmured with confidence, staring back up at the castle with a glare of victory.

"Did you just say… Sarah?"

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Black curtains, a dark room with blood-red sheets and a lavender comforter with gold filigree… Sarah sat up and moaned, rubbing her stiff neck back into position.

_Where am I?_ she took another glance around and then looked at her clothes.

She was in a hospital smock, her scarlet blood still stained on the white collar.

Her gasp and muted scream surprised her and she scooted back into the bed frame with a loud clunk. That car! It was a black four by four, spiraling down the road, in the wrong direction! White headlights, coming towards her, she froze- she felt the hit- she felt-

Nothing. She was perfectly fine. There wasn't one broken bone, one laceration… nothing.

"Surprised, Sarah?" a horribly familiar, deep, and haunting voice echoed throughout the bedroom. She froze. "You know, getting hit by a car does have its… advantages, wouldn't you say?"

"Wha-what do you mean?" Sarah asked with a raised eyebrow feeling her bones almost hum with the sudden energy in the room. He always seemed to do that to her.

"Well not just any mortal can say they've slept in my bed," his perverted grin made Sarah immediately blush.

"Goblin King," she shivered just thinking about it. "Why am I not-"

"Dead?" he answered for her, slipping out of the dark and revealing his full, feathery white poet's shirt and black ensemble, which gave little to her imagination. "It's because of your brother, actually. Smart kid that Toby, if I weren't so set on you, I'd have him as well."

"Toby!" Sarah gasped, and immediately pulled her body out of the bed. "W-where is he?" she demanded, shaking worse than the last fall leaf. "G-Goblin King?" she asked when he wasn't looking at her.

"It's really quite pathetic dear, that hold he has on you. Oh if only I could have that hold on you… alas, I must play the villains role." Turning his curved eyes towards her he sneered. "Toby is running the Labyrinth for you Sarah, aren't you proud of him? I seem to recall you doing the same thing not so long ago…"

"No!" she gasped. Not her little brother! No- no! He shouldn't have to go through with this! "No- no- no! I won!" she cried, watching the Goblin King's eyebrows rise at her change in tone, a smirk still on his face. "I won! He shouldn't have to do this!"

"Yes Sarah, you've made your point quite clear that you've won," he spat. "I never took you for the bragging type. No, your dear little brother made his own deal with me. You're now on the receiving end of that agreement."

"I don't understand…" Sarah admitted, her eyes downcast as she stared at the scars lacing across her hands from when she had crawled her way out of her car.

"Sarah, Toby wished you to me," he grinned, "because you were almost, if not already, dead. Once I cured you, he agreed to run the labyrinth to get you back to the Aboveworld… but if he fails," at this the Goblin King let his sharp teeth glisten in the little light of the bedroom. "I get to keep you."

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_**A/N:**_ Yeah I coined that quote of Jareth's from Harry Potter- sorry Voldemort!

The Labyrinth and all their characters belong to © Jim Henson

This work of fiction is purely for entertainment. No money is being gained from my writing it.


	3. Chapter 3 Questions

_**A/N:**_ I AM SO SORRY! *cries* I've been working on this since last year, but for some reason, I had thought that I at least had put up this chapter! D: I apologize, for all the nice things people have written... all my reviews and people who are watching this... I'm a horrible person! D:

/endselfdeath. I promise to be better, especially since I've got an idea for this fanfic... believe me I do! XD

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**Chapter 3: Questions...**

_"Did somebody say Sarah?"_

Toby twisted around, misjudging the length of his feet and almost tripping over himself as he turned to meet the barely waist-high dwarf wielding a spray can and a curious expression on his face. "H-how do you know Sarah?" the dwarf garbled, his eyes peering up at the flaxen boy with curiosity.

"A better question should be, how do _you_ know my sister!" Toby frowned sizing up the ugly brown-skinned thing with a keen eye.

"You- you're Toby?" Hoggle gasped. "Oh- oh my! How did this happen?" He bit his fingers with nervousness, glancing at his tended hedges with worry beyond what his little body could handle.

"Goblin, how do you know my n-"

"I most certainly am NOT a goblin- I'm a dwarf, and I tend to these hedges. Your sister was much kinder to me… perhaps… perhaps that's why she didn't win… oh what is that Goblin King doing to her now…?"

"Of course she made it out! She's almost twenty eight now!" Toby sighed and ran a hand through his short hair. "Maybe I should just go on… I only have thirteen hours."

"You wished someone away now?" Hoggle groaned.

"Look dwarf, I don't have time for this- I need to find the door to the labyrinth," Toby looked up at the menacing grey walls, covered with less-than-green hedges and poked around the leaves for a switch of some kind.

"Kid- Toby- slow down for a second," Hoggle grasped onto his pants and as Toby was about to swat away his hand, when he recognized a plastic bracelet, perfect in every detail…

"You did know Sarah," he murmured, and his finger tentatively touched the bracelet. "She had this bead set, when I was little, and once I took some of them. She was so mad at me, and my mom made me give them back… I'd recognize that design anywhere…" Toby turned around from Hoggle and tilted his head downward, adverting his eyes from all else but the ground.

"Sarah got into an accident…" Toby gulped. "She was dying… and I went to her room and found-" He swallowed and pulled in unshed tears. "I wished her away to The Goblin King, he said he'd heal her… I'm to run the Labyrinth if I want her back." Hoggle turned around and started muttering to himself. "Um… can you help me?" Hoggle turned and met the boy's eyes with some emotion hidden beneath them.

"First thing's first- you're not asking the right questions." A new light was in Hoggle's eyes, and a crooked smile wound his way on his face. _For Sarah…_ Hoggle agreed.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

_"I get to keep you."_

Sarah just stared evenly at the Goblin King's wicked glance, and suddenly, she felt some of that spiteful fire burn in her gut. "Keep me? And how in the world are you allowed to just do that? I'm way over eighteen, Goblin King, I can do as I like!"

Jareth laughed and it only kindled Sarah's youthful fire. "By what law, dear Ms. Williams, am I upholding to? The Aboveground's?" His laugh got darker as he stalked closer, hunched with his authority like an invisible cape around his shoulders, "no dear, you are in _my_ kingdom now, and _I _am the keeper of the laws. I was challenged, and I have chosen my stakes. The challenger has accepted them, and that is the end of it."

With a sudden twist of his cape he turned and glared at Sarah. "We will meet me again come dinner, for now you remain in here." And with a bang he shut the large doors that were Sarah's escape.

Sarah refused to cry, and was surprised to find herself even thinking of showing emotion at the thought of that ruthless, spoiled, Goblin King…

"Argh!" she huffed, pacing as she thought of what to do. If it was true what the Goblin King had said, and she had no reason to believe that he would lie to her, then Toby was truly running the dreaded Labyrinth right now… and here she was, helpless to aid him.

What's worse, is that, as much as she wanted to believe the Goblin King was lying, she knew it was the truth. Toby had the same deep sense of loyalty that she had… it must come from their father… Thoughts of her father brought nothing but a sigh. He needed the spirit of adventure and stubborn personality that her mother had given her… it would have made their lives a whole lot more… cohesive.

Sarah hated to admit it, but there was no way she was going to help Toby without the Goblin King… and first, she had to get through to him… which meant, the only thing she could do was to play the Goblin King's game until she could find a loophole, or a way for her to attack the king… "Oh goodness, what am I thinking?" she said aloud. "I'm playing games with the trickster god himself."

_But you've won before…_ a voice in her head kept reminding her. _You can always win again..._

So Sarah started thinking about what she knew of kings and what literature she had read dealing with their subjects disobeying them. Being an English major hadn't meant she went too deeply into history, but reading tons of literature might be her only way of this place…

And then she realized, there had already been a loophole the Goblin King hadn't thought of.

_He never sentenced me to dinner… My only command is that I stay here…_ "_Words have meaning in this place_…" Her friend's haunting words came out of her mouth. "He can't force me to dinner, I can refuse_._"_ ...and then what_?

She started pacing again. _That would give me the power…_

Exactly… it was a power-play. The Goblin King had only had a deal with her brother. He had made no deal with her… and she was going to try not to, if she could find a way to trick him… _But he's played this game for years… _She might have to sacrifice something in order to aid her brother… or find a way out of the Underground even if he loses.

So first, she'd show him she meant business… she'd confine herself to this room, and see what happens. Of course, that didn't stop the question that she kept ruthlessly shoving to the back of her mind.

"Why, out of all the things he could have gambled with my brother, did he choose me?"

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

"Has this place always been so…" Toby waved his hand around for lack of a better word.

"Dead?" Hoggle answered for him, "yes and no… it's been dying over a number of years. Even when your sister was here thirteen years ago, there was much less green then there used to be." Hoggle pat his hedges with some sadness.

Hoggle and Toby were now walking down and around the labyrinth, Toby expecting a door, and Hoggle waiting for Toby to ask the right questions… not questions about the state of the Labyrinth… _why does he even care?_ Hoggle kept wondering.

"Why is the Labyrinth dying Hoggle?" Toby asked, a bit of a frown on his face.

"King Jareth's the reason," Hoggle answered, trying not to huff at the boy's time wasting.

"What did he do wrong?" Toby asked.

"Nothing," Hoggle answered. Toby sighed when Hoggle didn't clarify.

"Right, ask the right questions…" Toby murmured, "So Hoggle, why is the Goblin King causing the Labyrinth to die?" He crumpled the nearest hedge leaf for emphasis.

Hoggle sighed, "that, I could answer, but aren't you on a time shedule or somethin'?"

"Hoggle, could you please answer it? I'm aware of the time limit." Toby turned to look at Hoggle and Hoggle was shocked to see divine curiosity there.

"Then let me ask you a question… Toby, why doya care?"

Toby was taken aback for a second, why did he care? "I- I dunno Hoggle… for some reason, I don't want to see this disappear… ya know?"

"It's a dangerous place, I think many would want to see it gone," Hoggle grumbled.

"Well yes… I think it taught her things... Sarah, I mean... maybe the danger was in order to teach the runner something important…" Hoggle was shocked at Toby's understanding.

"Perhaps you is older than Sarah when she ran this Labyrinth… but Toby, the King is well aware of the state of his Labyrinth, he's waiting for something."

"Waiting for what?" Toby asked.

"Umgh… for the spell to be broken." Hoggle pulled Toby closer to where the Labyrinth door was and waited for him to ask.

"What did the spell state?"

"Okay Toby, how about I tell you when we're inside, okay?" Hoggle's hands were clenching and unclenching repeatedly.

"Fine," he growled, staring at the wide expanse of the walls. "Do I wish myself inside?" Toby asked.

"Unless you want King Jareth coming back and laughing at you, I'd suggest you don't," Hoggle snorted.

"Hoggle, do you know the way inside?"

"Yes I do."

"Will you show me?"

"Show ya what?"

"The way inside the Labyrinth," Toby's eyebrows furrowed.

"I could…"

"Hoggle! Show me the way inside the Labyrinth!" Toby yelled.

"There's a boy, asking the right questions," he jabbed his finger at Toby's chest and then the entrance appeared just beyond Hoggle's hand.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

"WHAT?" Jareth roared, as the young goblin shook piteously.

"I- I- da Ladee not-" Jareth kicked the goblin out of the way and stormed up the long grey staircase to the room's green door.

"I thought I told you to come down for dinner, Sarah," the Goblin King growled menacingly from behind the door.

"Well, I'm not hungry," Sarah retorted.

"Sarah, why are you being so difficult?" Jareth rubbed his eyebrows with frustration.

"Who says I'm being difficult?" Sarah asked innocently.

"I AM," he yelled.

"That's not my problem, I think I'm being rather civil," she said lightly.

"Saraaaaah-"

"Kingy Kingy!" one of his goblins pulled at Jareth's clothes until he turned and glared at the . "Not bein' right!"

"What, do you _mean_?" he raised his eyebrow at the small assembly. The goblins all huddled together and whispered, then pushed the daring one out of the group to be in front. He had a longer nose and long floppy ears that hit against his face as he looked up at his king.

"Girly not break spell if kingy mean."

"Kingy should be nice," one with a long neck reiterated.

"Nice." All the goblin's repeated, watching as the Goblin King let out a rough sigh.

"You three are not getting it, she's not-"

"What spell?" Sarah asked, the door slightly ajar, though only enough to allow one green eye to pierce through the darkness of the room.

Jareth turned and a haughty grin lit his face, "maybe I'd tell you if you came to dinner with me? Hm…" His grin widened as Sarah opened the door wider and pouted in thought.

"I don't-"

"Really I'm just giving this one to you Sarah, what's the worst that could happen at dinner?"

"That depends… are there going to be peaches on the table?" Jareth's eyes widened infinitesimally before he broke out in loud laughter. Sarah found herself grinning a bit too, though she tried not to.

"My goodness Sarah, what could I possibly benefit from you being unconscious, hm?"

Sarah's eyes curved, "I could think of ten things off the top of my head."

Jareth laughed again and this time the goblins even joined with a few nervous giggles. "Sarah, come now, you can trust me." He watched her pupils shrink in fright, and for a second, something in his heart clenched.

"I'll come, give me a few minutes…" then she closed the door quickly and left Jareth standing there, a bit perturbed.

"Shoo," he then waved to the goblins, watching them scurry away. He stayed listening at the door for a few seconds, and then slowly walked back down the staircase.

"Hilda?" he asked, and a stout goblin with a pussy green apron came running out. "Make sure Lady Williams is okay upstairs."

"Yes Your Majesty," she then hobbled up the staircase as he moved farther into the castle, one of his crystal globes spiraling restlessly between his fingers.

* * *

**_A/N: _**I hope this RIDICULOUSLY LONG WAIT has been somewhat forgotten by a good chapter... don't worry, the next one will be out before September- I PROMISE!

Jareth/Sarah/Toby and all things Labyrinth belong to Jim Henson and company

I solemnly swear that I am not writing this for any profit of any kind, this is purely for enjoyment.

**Edit: **Yeah, I'm trying to make it more cohesive by putting little "o"s for scene changes- sorry if you guys got all excited for an update! I'll have one soon!


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